The Alabama & Southeastern RR WIP Thread (Large Screenies)

[Southern1581]

The SLF-7B already is a road slug and looks like a CF7, just without the rooftop fans and exhaust stacks, and some of the doors have been welded into solid panels.

Because we aren't planning on getting rid of any slugs, what I'll do it I'll take 6 CF7's, I'll patch renumber 3 of them and send them ahead, and we'll rebuild the remaining 3 here at Autumnville since we have beyond enough shop capacity for the job. After that we'll go ahead and put them into your paint scheme and numbers. This will cost a bit more but you get a discount for all of the rebuild work and paint work being done.

We sent out 44 tonner 54 yesterday on M542 heading due south from Birmingham, as we have the option of sending it just about anywhere on our line from there. It should get here sometime tonight. Where are we sending these units to? Depending on where it is we may have to work out a deal with one of the bigger Class 1's to take it to your line.

 

[jordon412]

Where are we sending these units to?

Savannah, Georgia. I can have CSX tack those onto one of their southbound trains and have them drop them off at our interchange yard in Anguilla, Georgia, which is west of Brunswick, Georgia, a few miles inland. I think that the quickest route would to take the CF7's to Birmingham and have them added onto an eastbound Norfolk Southern train headed to Savannah via Atlanta. However, the area around Pelican Bay on to the end of the line at Hamilton River, did get hit by Hurricane Matthew, and we're working on getting the railroad back up and running. It'll take a few months before the whole line is fully operational. Right now we have the route between Anguilla and just outside Pelican Bay operational, and are using it to send in supplies to help the area recover. The supplies are unloaded from the train outside of Pelican Bay and are placed on several airboats for the remainder of the run into Pelican Bay.

 

[Southern1581]

Alright. A&SE actually has trackage out to Savannah via the Georgia Division. Savannah is the terminus of the line. I'll get the shipping sorted out. The train is due into Birmingham around 7 tonight, which means that I can send it out from Birmingham Yard 7 eastbound on train I626 which leaves at 8. The train should hit Gadsden tonight where it will stop until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow should bring the train east of Atlanta and heading towards Savannah. The train does not run Sunday which puts the unit's arrival at Savannah on Monday. After that it's all down to CSX. As for your CF7 orders, we're currently inspecting the ones in the deadline at Autumnville. 1339, 1340, 1343-45, 1351, 1355, and 1360 are all present here currently. We're gonna slug the 3 which look the worst mechanically, as losing their motors would be a smaller loss to them. Given that what remains will also be slugged, we're gonna try to find the ones that are looking at least decent mechanically to sell off. We'll run them through the shops for a 92 day inspection, park them in the paint booth for patching, and send them on their way. The CF7's will probably head north to Birmingham not next week but the week after. It'll take longer to do the slugs. They will be brought over to shop 3 where we will strip them to the frame. We'll fill the engine compartment and fuel tank (unless you would like them to be used as fuel tenders) with concrete to make up for the lost weight. We'll overhaul the trucks as needed, then set the frame back on its own trucks and move it back out to the cranes for reassembly. We'll bolt everything back together, and do a quick refurbishing run on the cab as well as rigging up the wiring necessary for it to operate as a slug. After that, to shop 2 for final inspection, then to the paint shed in shop 1 for painting. Depending on how fast the work goes, they should ship in a few months.

 

[jordon412]

Fine with me. We're expecting the repairs to the line to be done by then, at least to the next-to-last town, Freeman. The station at Turtle River Beach took the brunt of the storm, since it is just a stone's throw from the coast. Quick bit of history: when the railroad was first built in the early 20th century, the railroad, known then as the Pelican Bay Southern, would run passenger trains during the summer from Savannah to Turtle River Beach, where a hotel was built for the wealthy of Savannah to get away from the city. Unfortunately, in 1959, an arson burnt the grand hotel to the ground. By that time, the amount of guests visiting the hotel had dropped by 75%, so there was not much interest in building a new hotel. However, there has been a local movement to build a new hotel on the site of the old hotel to draw in tourists and increase the local economy. As for the road slugs, keep the fuel tanks empty, as they'll be used as fuel tenders. I can't help but wonder why any of the Class 1's haven't done the same to their slugs.

 

[blueodessey]

Wow, this is one interesting Thread to read, thanks for the history on old Tracks, Hotels and stuff, and fuel Tenders, that sounds like a novel idea, combined with extra pulling power slug wise.........It's nice to see that even though equipment might be old, it gets re purposed where possible and new life......

 

[Southern1581]

At A&SE Autumnville we specialize in that. Take the EMD SD45 for example. Decent enough units, but absolutely plagued with crankshaft issues, and also getting up in years. We've taken the SD45, which is a good unit with questionable reliability, and turned it into the backbone of our railroad, the SD42-3. Downrated to 3200 hp with structural improvements to the crankshaft along with various other improvements that make it nearly as bulletproof as its little brother, the SD40-2. Even as a good sized Class 2 RR (I think the A&SE is still a touch small to be called a Class 1), we still use CF7 units from time to time. With good care and the right programs, it'll take a long time for these units to expire.

Duly noted Jordan, the units will not have their fuel tanks filled and we'll convert them for use as fuel tenders. We've picked 1339, 1343, and 1360 to be slugged. We still haven't decided which units will get geared up to be put back into service.

 

[Southern1581]

Today's Update: Dumpster Diving (kinda)

While I didn't do any actual work on the route today, I have been doing work related to the A&SE. Firstly, I found the missing dependencies for some of the units that haven't been seen running lately, i.e. the A&SE B40-8W's, and ironically enough the SLF-7B slugs, so I'll be able to show those off fairly soon. Also, I went sniffing around my editing folder from my TS12 build. Among the things I found were:

Unfinished blanks for: JR SD45-2 (which would allow me to make the maroon and grey SD45-2's), standard cab SD70, cnr SD50f, GP30, maybe one or two others.
Unfinished skins for: A&SE CF7, A&SE U18B, A&SE breast cancer awareness SD42-3's, A&SE SD60M's, HLCX SD40M-2's, HODRRM SW8's
Unnumbered finished skin for the HLCX maroon and blue SD40-2
Finished blank for A&SE GP38-2's (davesnow model)
And finally, a finished, not yet weathered NS GP35 based on Joe's model.

So this will give me something to work on for a few days. The nice part about all of the davesnow models is that with permission they can be released to you guys, so if for some reason you want A&SE GP38-2's running around your route, you can, or in Jordan's case he can have his latest acquisitions rolling around straight from my skin shop. And even though I can't release the JR skins for obvious reasons, they will certainly make nice eye candy for the route. I also might see if Joe wants the NS GP35 skin for his site.

So yeah, expect to see these skins rolling around the route fairly soon!

 

[blueodessey]

Spring Cleaning come Early I see

:wave: Evening sir, looks like you were quite a bit busy for sure, Can't wait to see the finished products........Some day when I get around to it, I need to go thru my inventory and try to ween out some Junk, and or Locos that I don't care for, or don't run well on the Road.

Definitely sounds like you won't be bored by any stretch of the imagination.........

One last item, don't know if you saw this today, but just in case, FYI.....

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/show...posting-content-to-the-DLS-that-is-not-theirs

Night and have a blessed Sunday Sir......

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks Blue. I almost have this SD60M skin nailed down, just a few finishing touches which I will tack on tomorrow and it'll be ready to pound the rails.

Took a look at the thread. It is saddening that he/she has no regards for the work of others. Luckily I'm one of the lesser known users on these forums (at least as far as DLS content is concerned) and I didn't see any of my content involved. Thanks for the heads up though.

Here's a quick render of the SD60M before I go to bed. Haven't had a screenshot in a while and I think it's time to fix that.

I'll also go ahead and add these to the roster since I'm almost positive I forgot them. Anyways, good night all!

 

[Southern1581]

After spending around another 2 hours finishing the skin, and then a further 4 hours getting the skin changer set up for all 25 A&SE SD60M's (I almost would have rather watched paint dry), I have finally finished the SD60M. Outside of changing the horn sound because I don't like the one I gave it, this project is a wrap. Time to show it off.

Two of A&SE's 25 SD60M's, 9016 and 9003, were on the point of today's southbound C577 empty coal drag, followed by standard cab SD60 5980. I snapped a few shots as it accelerated through Autumnville.


Enjoy!

 

[blueodessey]

Units look terrific, you should be very proud.......

You show off!

:moparn those units look great:mop:,,,,,,Time flies when your having fun, or is it Working Hard......

It really shows, the Craftsmanship you put into your details........:clap:

Spectacular shots especially with the Fog Weather effects, I sure hope you lock them up at night real good in your yard, as I might have sticky fingers and want to Touch, and turn the lights on....LOL

PS......The horn will work out, you just need to do a little shopping......

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks Blue! The fog effect is actually smoke from a fire at a nearby gas station. I believe you said you read through this thread and if you'll recall there used to be a standoff scene at a gas station. Unfortunately most of the assets for the little men that made up that scene don't work in TANE, so I switched it to someone's car catching fire there instead. That's where the fog from that shot comes from. The smoke happened to blow in just a sec before I snapped the shot. As for the horn, it isn't so much I should go shopping, more I just need to choose another one of my sounds to equip the unit with, because I have a pretty large array of sounds to choose from, including custom engine sounds which those units are equipped with.

Also, if you talk to the yard master really nice he might let you go play around on one of the units in the dead line. Just...try not to break it too bad?

 

[Southern1581]

I've updated the roster yet again, adding various corrections to existing entries and also adding a few new entries as well. Updated roster can be found on page 48 of this thread.

In other news, I caught a pair of A&SE SD60M's stopped in Autumnville today and I managed to catch them as they geared all the way up to run 8 as they got the train moving before nothing back down to run 3. I should have a video of that out probably Wednesday, I have work I need to finish tonight and tomorrow is one of my busiest days of the week.

 

[blueodessey]

Can't wait to see that Video......

I'll definitely meet up with Yard Master, even that Dead Line holds some interesting stuff to behold.

Speaking of Videos I have been watching some of the Virginia Truckee RR in Nevada, I didn't realize it, but when one of my Parents Past last year I went thru that area and saw an old Steamer running slowly down the tracks and I was on the way to northern Ca, to handle the funeral, so I didn't have time to stop and see what R.R. it was?

Amazing the things you see and don't see when in Grief of a passing of Parent...... http://virginiatruckee.com/

Sorry I got off topic here, will be waiting to see your Video when you get it finished.

And for the Gas Station and Fog, that is one cool Trick you pulled off, my Engineer's hat tips with full respect.

 

[blueodessey]

Hello Southern 1581, just stopped by for a min,,,,I am busier than ever with TANE install, clean up, and delete of TS-12, TANE DRIVER 2016, and all the backup files I had......Talk about Hard Drive space chewed up!!!!

Like you said, it'll take time to patch stuff up, import and all those good things one needs to due to big Version Change.

So far so good, I'm reading Manual's, TANE NEW ERA + KICK STARTER threads and to get a handle on TANE. I really like the way Content Mgr works, whole lots faster than TS-12 one.

Also trying to get PEV's Tools setup correctly with TANE, as others have told me, it's a different arrangement than with TS-12..I'm quite green with PEV's Tools and Asset X stuff. Won't be board that's for sure.

Thank your advice and help.

 

[Southern1581]

No problem man! Yeah getting those tools set up was an absolute pain for me, had to figure out quite a bit of stuff to get those up and running. Also, while I do appreciate that the new CM is a lot faster than what I had in TS12, it just feels..so much less refined to me. There's not much UI to speak of, frankly scrolling through the assets to me feels like I'm scrolling through a list on Notepad. Also, I quite miss my content creator plus, it made swapping things like engine and horn sounds sooooo much quicker than doing it manually, which I have no choice but to do now. I'd say that as a content creator, I hate it, but as someone building a route with 500+ DLS dependencies, I think it's alright. Guess I'll just see where they go with it from here.

 

[blueodessey]

No problem man! Yeah getting those tools set up was an absolute pain for me, had to figure out quite a bit of stuff to get those up and running. Also, while I do appreciate that the new CM is a lot faster than what I had in TS12, it just feels..so much less refined to me. There's not much UI to speak of, frankly scrolling through the assets to me feels like I'm scrolling through a list on Notepad. Also, I quite miss my content creator plus, it made swapping things like engine and horn sounds sooooo much quicker than doing it manually, which I have no choice but to do now. I'd say that as a content creator, I hate it, but as someone building a route with 500+ DLS dependencies, I think it's alright. Guess I'll just see where they go with it from here.

Copy that on the UI thing, it is a lot different, and maybe they'll dress that up some later ? As for Content Creator I haven't ventured into that area yet, I'm as they say clueless.

I goofed up on my Asset replacements, I think I didn't realize what I selected on the CM Filter as available downloads coupled with the Fact I downloaded too many routes and ended up with a lot of them not working in Tane, you'd open them and nothing their but Sky......Tane on the Route Preview window to that Route, had a screen that looked like a DEM Route with Red, Aqua and Blue lines, with something that said, AND FROM HERE YOU BUILD IT" never seen that before in TS-12......So I had a bunch to preview, but now when I see that one, I don't waste the time opening it, I just delete it and be done with it......

Now about a 1/4 of the routes I downloaded, worked out great and look wonderful in TANE.......Like anything I was a KID in a Candy Store the night before and it serves me right.....I should learn TANE better before Shopping too much.........

Had a bear of time trying to figure out where the heck your Screen Shots are stored, had to Google it, because the manual from what I see didn't explain to well.......I think JCitron explained on a Google Search for the subject from our Forum, and then I went hunting!!!!!

"C:\Users\xxxxx\AppData\Local\N3V Games\TANE\build ubmkri4o1\screenshots"

Talk about hiding something in an obscure area, I think they have been colluding with Microsoft again......LOL

I put my first Picture of my Route into my Screen Shot Thread.....Also found I had some broken Track work, few other Broken items when I ported it in, but other than that, it made it over to TANE Ok.
See you around.

 

[Southern1581]

Yeah. The thing I hate about the appdata folder is that it is a hidden folder, and until you unhide it (which is possible and is what I have done) it makes everything a massive pain in the ***. So yeah, I would look into making hidden folders visible in file explorer, believe me it makes things worlds easier (and it's also the only way to create a root to the TANE folder with PEV tools).

 

[Southern1581]

Finally found the time to cobble that video together that I mentioned on the last page. Here it is:

Enjoy!

 

[blueodessey]

Finally found the time to cobble that video together that I mentioned on the last page. Here it is:

Enjoy!

Evening Southern 1581

In regards to your AssetX/Paths Folder Setup Screen,,,,,,,,, quick Ques on the Home Folder, is yours pointed to Appdata folder, or is pointed to the Program T:ANE folder?

I'll explain later when I see your answer..........